Blythewood Online 691

Category: News

  • SCHP ID’s Driver Suspected in Fatal Hit-and-Run

    RIDGEWAY – The S.C. Highway Patrol (SCHP) this week released the name of the driver suspected in a Dec. 24 hit-and-run accident that claimed the life of 55-year-old Nilesh Shantilal Desai at the Sharpe Shoppe Exxon station on Highway 34 and I-77 near Ridgeway.

    According to the SCHP, Kenneth Robinson, 57, of Lugoff, was identified by employees at the Sharpe Shoppe as he returned to the station on Dec. 29 to purchase fuel for his 2003 International tractor-trailer. Employees took down a vehicle description and tag number as Robinson was leaving the station, and a short time later a Fairfield County Sheriff’s deputy pulled the rig over on Highway 34 at a gas station near the Kershaw County line, detaining Robinson until a Highway Patrolman could arrive.

    Fairfield County Coroner Barkley Ramsey told The Voice last week that Desai, formerly of Appaloosa Ridge Road in Richburg, but who most recently lived at the Ramada Inn that he owned next door to the Sharpe Shoppe, was taking his routine daily walk from his motel to the Exxon station just after 6 a.m. on Dec. 24. Ramsey said Desai entered the Sharpe Shoppe, made a purchase and was walking back to the motel, but never made it home. At approximately 6:30 a.m., Ramsey said, a cashier at the Sharpe Shoppe found Desai’s body on the ground near the diesel pumps behind the station. Desai was pronounced dead at the scene from trauma inflicted by a moving vehicle.

    A heavy downpour on the morning of the incident made visibility poor, and Ramsey said the tractor trailer may have struck Desai without ever seeing him or even realizing he had hit him. Ramsey said that it is also possible that Desai slipped and fell on the wet surface and was on the ground when struck by the rig.

    The SCHP said the incident remains under investigation and any potential charges against Robinson, which the SCHP said would, if filed, come from the Fairfield County Solicitor’s Office, were pending the outcome of that investigation.

  • After Circuitous Debate, Board OK’s Employee Bonuses

    RIDGEWAY – The Fairfield County School Board voted 4-2 during their Dec. 16 meeting at Geiger Elementary School to give a $60 Wal-Mart gift card to all of the District’s full-time employees, but not before the motion, which was put on the floor by Board member William Frick (District 6) survived several amendments and the discussion veered off into matters of finance and salaries.

    Dr. J.R. Green, Superintendent of Fairfield County Schools, told the Board that his staff had “identified some savings in the budget,” in order to afford the one-time bonus and would “not have to go into the fund balance to make that happen.”

    But Board member Annie McDaniel (District 4) said $60 was not enough, while pressing Green to explain how he had arrived at the $60 figure.

    “We just did your evaluation, and what was the amount some Board members thought you so graciously earned? Five percent?” McDaniel asked Green. “We’re giving you all of that but you could only find in the budget, and we put $1.5 million back into the budget, $60 for our employees?”

    Green repeated that his staff had identified savings in the budget, and added, “We felt that was a reasonable amount.”

    “My question was how did you come up with $60?” McDaniel asked.

    “I just answered your question,” Green said.

    When McDaniel repeated her question once more, Green said, “I guess I don’t understand the question,” and told McDaniel she could amend the motion if she wished.

    But McDaniel said she could not amend the motion without knowing how much money was available in the budget.

    “The budget is available for you,” Frick told McDaniel, “and it shows you how much we’ve spent. It’s there for you to see, Ms. McDaniel. It’s on BoardDocs (the web-based program utilized by the Board for sharing information).”

    When Board member Andrea Harrison (District 1) clarified McDaniel’s question, asking where specifically in the budget those savings were, Green said the biggest reduction had come in legal fees.

    McDaniel then amended Frick’s motion to give all hourly employees a $250 bonus, while maintaining $60 for all other employees. Board member Henry Miller (District 2) said he could not support separating out the hourly employees from everyone else and asked why the Board wouldn’t just make the bonus $250 for everyone. Paula Hartman (District 2), meanwhile, reminded the Board that the District had only recently given raises to hourly employees.

    When Green noted that McDaniel’s motion left out teachers, McDaniel amended her motion again to provide them with $250 as well.

    “I know we have the money to do what the original ($60) proposal was,” Frick said to McDaniel, “but what you’re asking us to do is to commit to money that we have no idea if we have.”

    Chairwoman Beth Reid (District 7) then pointed out that the proposal had gone from a cost of $36,000 to the District under the $60 proposal to a cost of about $150,000 under McDaniel’s amendment. Undeterred, McDaniel then amended her motion once more to provide $250 to all District employees. But just as suddenly, McDaniel reverted back to her motion for $250 for teachers and hourly employees and $60 for everyone else.

    The motion failed to carry, with only McDaniel voting in the affirmative.

    Frick’s original motion then came back to the floor and passed 4-2. McDaniel and Hartman voted against the $60 bonus, while Harrison offered no vote at all.

    “These are things that should be planned at the beginning of the year and not done sporadically,” Harrison said after the vote.

  • Council Reviews Zoning Proposal

    Councilmen Ask for Cobblestone Traffic Study

    BLYTHEWOOD – Although the proposed zoning amendment to Cobblestone Park’s Planned Development District (PDD) got the green light from the Planning Commission last October, Town Council at their Dec. 22 meeting told engineers working for developer DR Horton that traffic along Blythewood Road remains a concern.

    DR Horton’s plan, approved by the Planning Commission, reduces the total number of dwelling units from the previously approved 1,250 to 1,142. It also includes placing five model homes at the site of the old tennis courts at the entrance to the subdivision off Blythewood Road. But the proposal increases the number of single family homes in the Primrose section by 144 over the existing 380, by constructing them on what originally had been planned as the 9-hole golf course.

    During the Dec. 22 meeting, Councilman Tom Utroska said that before Council votes on the recommendation in January, he would like to see a traffic study.

    “(A traffic study) doesn’t prohibit you from doing anything; it just tells you if what you’re trying to do is feasible,” Utroska said. “I can’t speak for the Council but I am for sure concerned about it because I see the traffic backed up over there every morning and I know ya’ll do too.”

    Councilman Bob Mangone agreed, but Andrew Allen with the Thomas Hutton engineering firm said such a study would likely be superfluous.

    “I think we all know what a traffic study is going to say,” Allen said. “It’s going to say Blythewood Road should be widened, and that’s not a project that’s ever going to be able to be funded by DR Horton. That project is included in the Richland County penny sales tax right now, so we all know what a traffic study is going to say, it’s going to say widen Blythewood Road. We don’t have the ability, the skills and the wherewithal to require a private developer to do that.”

    Utroska disagreed.

    “I don’t know what a traffic study is going to say,” Utroska said. “It may say you need to have a separate entrance or you need to widen the entrance. I don’t know what it would say. That’s the reason why you do a study. If I knew that we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Maybe you know it better than I do.”

    Councilman Eddie Baughman, meanwhile, asked Allen if DR Horton had secured the necessary water taps from the Town of Winnsboro to make the build-out a reality. Earlier in the meeting, Winnsboro Mayor Roger Gaddy brought Blythewood up to speed on Winnsboro’s long-term plans for securing an adequate water supply to support growth in northeastern Richland County. During his presentation, Gaddy said that until a new water line could be installed to bring water in from the Broad River, which would not become a reality until at least 2017, developers would have to phase in projects.

    “The days of (developers) coming and saying we need 500 taps and we’re going to give them to you are over,” Gaddy said. “You come and tell us what your phases are. You’re not going to build it all at once. You’re not going to sell it all at once. And we’re not going to sell all the taps at once. Tell us what you need from Winnsboro for the first year or two, or for the first 180 days. And what do you need after that? We’ll look at that and we’ll guarantee you what we can.”

    Allen told Council that the Cobblestone project was a 5- to 10-year plan. With 2017 as the target date for Broad River water, Allen said the proposed build-out should be in the clear.

  • Mayor Lays Out Winnsboro’s Water Plan

    BLYTHEWOOD – With the relationship between Blythewood and Winnsboro somewhat strained since Blythewood Town Council gave Winnsboro its two-year notice to terminate their water franchise agreement last April, Winnsboro Mayor Roger Gaddy during Council’s Dec. 22 meeting brought Blythewood up to speed on Winnsboro’s plans to secure additional water, while also explaining why Winnsboro turned down a $1.4 million offer to sell the Blythewood system to Columbia.

    “By early 2017 we should have a water line from the Broad River to the water plant to help fulfill the needs of Blythewood, Fairfield County and Winnsboro long-term,” Gaddy said. Winnsboro rejected Columbia’s $1.4 million bid, Gaddy said, because, “for us to run this water line to the Broad River we’re going to have to float about a $10 million bond, and to do that northeast Richland County is important to us because it’s an area of potential growth. To be able to sell that bond to the investors it makes it more attractive for us to have that area.”

    Gaddy has previously told The Voice that Columbia only made the offer to buy the Blythewood portion of the water system at the request of Blythewood, and during his Dec. 22 presentation Gaddy questioned why Columbia would want to alter the situation they have now. Winnsboro is currently committed to 1 million gallons a day from Columbia to feed into the Blythewood system, and at present is only using about one quarter of that capacity, Gaddy said.

    “Why would Columbia want to buy it? Right now we’re paying a retail rate to Columbia,” Gaddy said on Dec. 22. “We’re not paying a discounted rate, not a commercial rate, not a wholesale rate. We’re paying the same rate someone pays whenever they buy their water for their house. All (Columbia) has to do is turn on the tap. Winnsboro provides all the maintenance, we do all the upgrades, we do all the upkeep, we make all the collections and we pay ya’ll the franchise fee.”

    Blythewood Mayor J. Michael Ross said he was concerned with putting developers on hold; developers he said, who were ready to move on projects that could bring considerable economic development to Blythewood.

    “I don’t know how we just sit here and say we’re just going to wait until you get that (Broad River line) done, in 2017 or 2018,” Ross said.

    But Gaddy said that with the current 1 million gallons a day commitment from Columbia, Winnsboro could have between 350 and 500 taps available for developers. Winnsboro is looking for an additional 1 million gallons a day from Columbia, which Gaddy said could free up approximately 1,000 taps. Even then, Gaddy said, developers would have to phase in their projects.

    “You’re not going to build it all at once,” Gaddy said. “You’re not going to sell it all at once. And we’re not going to sell all the taps at once. Tell us what you need from Winnsboro for the first year or two, or for the first 180 days. And what do you need after that? We’ll look at that and we’ll guarantee you what we can.”

    Ross noted that Blythewood could easily have all its needs met by Columbia, and met at once.

    “You understand, and I know you do because you’re a smart man,” Ross told Gaddy, “that we can start getting all the water we need from Columbia tomorrow.”

    “I understand that,” Gaddy said, “but Columbia (is) not going to give it all to you until you need it.”

    Gaddy added that Winnsboro’s agreement with Blythewood was not an exclusive one.

    “The developers can go to Columbia and get (water),” Gaddy said. “They don’t want to go to Columbia and get it. They prefer to get it from Winnsboro.”

    Gaddy also said that the dispute over the franchise agreement had to be resolved. In April, Blythewood passed a resolution to terminate the agreement under the impression that the 20-year contract expired in 2016. Winnsboro has maintained that the deal doesn’t expire until 2020.

    “The contract was signed in 1996 by Blythewood; it was not signed by Winnsboro until the year 2000,” Gaddy said. “Blythewood never asked for any franchise fees until the year 2000, so I think they recognized probably that’s when it would start.”

    Gaddy told Blythewood Town Council that, according to the contract, any disputes over the agreement must be settled by binding arbitration. Last summer, Winnsboro retained an arbitrator to make their case. The deadline for Blythewood to also hire an arbitrator came and went in September without them doing so.

    “If ya’ll are still questioning when (the franchise agreement) expires we’re going to need ya’ll to hire an arbitrator and lets go to binding arbitration,” Gaddy told Blythewood’s Council, “which I think your council and our council thinks is a big waste of money, or we need a letter that just states you acquiesce.”

    Last month, Gaddy told The Voice that Winnsboro wasn’t entirely happy with the franchise agreement as written and would be willing to consider renegotiating it. On Dec. 22, he relayed that same message to Blythewood.

    “You think this franchise fee is flawed, as do we,” Gaddy said. “We would certainly like to work with ya’ll about redoing the franchise agreement (in a way) that we both agree is fair and equitable.”

  • Hotel Owner Killed in Hit-and-Run

    Suspected Driver Located

    RIDGEWAY – A 55-year-old man was killed early Christmas Eve morning in a hit-and-run incident near Ridgeway. A suspect in the incident was apprehended Monday evening, sources told The Voice, although his identity was not available at press time.

    According to Fairfield County Coroner Barkley Ramsey, Nilesh Shantilal Desai, formerly of Appaloosa Ridge Road in Richburg but who most recently lived at the Ramada Inn which he owned on Highway 34 and I-77, was taking his routine daily walk from the Ramada Inn to the Sharpe Shoppe Exxon station nearby just after 6 a.m. on Dec. 24. Ramsey said Desai entered the Sharpe Shoppe, made a purchase and was walking back to the motel, but never made it home. At approximately 6:30 a.m., Ramsey said, a cashier at the Sharpe Shoppe found Desai’s body on the ground near the diesel pumps behind the station. Desai was pronounced dead at the scene from trauma inflicted by a moving vehicle.

    The weather conditions were poor, with a heavy downpour pelting the area and Ramsey said a tractor trailer may have struck Desai without ever seeing him or even realizing he had hit him. Ramsey said that it is also possible that Desai slipped and fell on the wet surface and was on the ground when struck by the rig.

    Video surveillance of the back of the station is unclear, Ramsey said, also because of the weather. The video does show a tractor trailer pulling up to the pumps just before the incident, but the markings on the truck were obscured by the rains. The driver pre-paid for his fuel with cash, Ramsey said, eliminating the possibility of tracing his identity electronically.

    The driver suspected in the incident returned to the Sharpe Shoppe Monday evening, sources said, and employees there were able to take down a vehicle description and tag number as the driver departed the station. A Fairfield County Sheriff’s deputy pulled the driver over on Highway 34 at a gas station near the Kershaw County line, detaining the driver until a S.C. Highway Patrolman could arrive. The Highway Patrol continues to have the incident under investigation, and it was not known at press time whether or not charges would be filed against the driver.

  • Board not in Unison on Super’s Evaluation

    District Chief Gets Contract Extension

    RIDGEWAY – The Fairfield County School Board voted 4-3 during their Dec. 16 meeting at Geiger Elementary School to extend the contract of Superintendent Dr. J.R. Green through June 30, 2021 and make him eligible for a 5-percent increase on his $144,200 a year salary after his fourth year and every year thereafter upon receiving a satisfactory evaluation from the Board. Board members Andrea Harrison (District 1), Paula Hartman (District 2) and Annie McDaniel (District 4) voted against the extension and potential raise.

    The extension comes on the heels of the District successfully obtaining accreditation on Dec. 10 from AdvancEd, the accrediting arm of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), and also follows the District’s third consecutive absolute rating of “average” from the S.C. Department of Education.

    The vote came after a review of the Board’s evaluation of Green in executive session. Those evaluations, obtained by The Voice through a Freedom of Information Act request, show that while four of the seven Board members rated Green “exemplary,” without comment, in all five areas (Community Engagement, Student Achievement, Leadership, Learning Environment and Fiscal Management), two Board members had different views.

    Harrison, who did not submit an evaluation at all, said before the vote that the Board was “making decisions based on false information.”

    “Sometimes we don’t like to talk about things that aren’t good,” Harrison said. “There are things that are wrong, but are just not being talked about.”

    McDaniel went a step further, saying the District had not, in fact, improved. Advanced Placement (AP) scores were of particular concern, she said, with only seven students passing the AP finals in 2013 and none in 2014.

    “The improvement we’re trying to imply is not there,” McDaniel said. “We should not give false positives and make it appear that this District is doing such great things when it’s really not.”

    Attempts to contact Harrison for clarification of her comments were unsuccessful at press time.

    Frick, who placed the motion for the contract extension on the floor, said the District had indeed made tremendous progress during Green’s 2-plus years in office.

    “We’re (moving) in a very positive direction,” Frick said. “Is everything 100 percent great? No. It’s probably never going to be. But we’re striving that way and making progress and I’m hoping we can continue on that path.”

    Chairwoman Beth Reid (District 7) and Board members Henry Miller (District 3), Carl Jackson (District 5) and William Frick (District 6) all gave Green “exemplary” marks across the spectrum, but included no comments in their reviews. Hartman rated Green as “exemplary” in Community Engagement, but gave him “proficient” marks in Student Achievement and Learning Environment and handed out “needs improvement” for Leadership and Fiscal Management.

    In her comments under Student Achievement, Hartman wrote, “Need to put something in place to get students to pass AP final test. Do we have something? Because not many are passing.”

    “Need to inform Board more and have Board vote on appropriate things,” Hartman wrote in her comments under Leadership and under Fiscal Management. “Show more Board respect.”

    McDaniel was somewhat more critical, giving Green “needs improvement” marks in every category.

    Under Student Achievement, McDaniel noted that Green had not notified the Board that the District had been cited by the State Department of Education for having an assistant principal in place who was not certified. In her comments under Fiscal Management, McDaniel wrote, “Mr. Green brags that $1.5 million went back to fund balance; however, fiscal needs for students went unmet.”

    The State Department actually “advised” the District in its 2013-2014 accreditation report, not “cited,” regarding an assistant principal at Kelly Miller Elementary who was not certified.

    “This particular individual was transferred to Kelly Miller prior to my arrival,” Green wrote in an email to The Voice this week. “If my memory serves me correctly, he had a secondary administrative certification and was working to obtain his elementary administrative certification. Additionally, he is no longer employed with Fairfield County Schools and was replaced by an individual who has elementary administrative certification. Furthermore, for a district to have only one ‘advisement’ is pretty good.”

    Green wrote in his email that he was also unclear as to how McDaniel’s note related to student achievement.

    As far as the fiscal needs to students going “unmet,” as McDaniel asserted, Green wrote that he was also in the dark.

    “I have absolutely no clue what Ms. McDaniel is speaking of,” Green wrote. “In fact, beginning in January we will provide an individual Goggle Chromebook for all students in grades 3-12 as a part of our new expanded 1-to-1 initiative. What “unmet” needs? Maybe she will share some with you, because I have not heard of any.”

    Attempts to contact McDaniel were not successful at press time.

    McDaniel also included a footnote on her evaluation form critical of the form itself.

    “Notice is that this evaluation was not an agreed upon document by the board and thus agreement of what would be provided to the board; thus, without sufficient empirical data or documentation I must grade Mr. Green as needing improvement.”

  • Meeting Turns Into Standoff

    Chairwoman Tries to Eject Board Member

    RIDGEWAY – The Dec. 16 meeting of the Fairfield County School Board, held at Geiger Elementary School, degenerated into an ugly standoff between Board Chairwoman Beth Reid and Board Member Annie McDaniel, with an unsuccessful attempt by Reid to have McDaniel removed from the meeting by a Fairfield County Sheriff’s deputy. The showdown ended anticlimactically after Reid asked for and received a motion to adjourn and the meeting was disbanded, albeit somewhat prematurely, with four affirmative votes.

    The tension between the two had been escalating throughout the meeting, Reid admitted later. During the financial report, when McDaniel complained about not receiving information from Green in a format that she had asked for, Reid ruled McDaniel out of order.

    McDaniel said during the discussion that she was seeking “a printout from the computer system” detailing how Green had used his discretionary fund.

    “We did provide you that information,” Green told McDaniel. “Apparently, you did not approve of the format in which it was provided. Our legal counsel did contact you and informed you that it was in accordance with our FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requirements. If the Board wants to instruct me to do otherwise, I’ll leave that decision to the Board.”

    “What I asked you for was the information from the computer system,” McDaniel responded. “What you gave was an Excel spreadsheet. Now, does that mean I do not trust you? I’m not going to get into that.”

    McDaniel said that the Board should not even bee allocating a discretionary fund for Green, “just to say you can do whatever you want to do with it, and we ask you what you spend the money on you won’t give us information.”

    Reid  reiterated that the information had indeed been provided and attempted to move on from finance to the human resources report.

    “You know, Madam Chair,” McDaniel said, “you sit here and you want to try to rush us through because you already discussed this and decided everything.”

    Reid again tried to move the agenda forward, but McDaniel plowed ahead.

    “We as Board members ask you questions so we can understand,” McDaniel continued, but Reid brought down the gavel and ruled McDaniel out of order.

    “No, I’m not out of order,” McDaniel said.

    “It is out of order,” Reid said, “and if I call you out of order again I will ask you to be removed.”

    “Oh, no ma’am,” McDaniel said. “You won’t ask for nobody to be removed from the Board meeting.”

    “Yes, I will,” Reid warned.

    “This is for the Board and I’m representing just as much as anybody else up here.”

    At last, the Board took up approval of the resignation of a certified employee. With a motion and a second on the floor, Reid called for the vote. But McDaniel asked Reid to call for questions.

    Reid, however, said she was not calling for questions on a personnel matter. McDaniel stressed that her question was an open-session question and asked, “Have we found someone to replace this person?”

    “The answer is yes,” Reid said, but as she again called for the vote McDaniel interrupted again.

    “I want the record to reflect I don’t know what your problem is tonight or who you’re trying to impress,” McDaniel began, but Reid hammered the gavel again.

    “Please remove Ms. McDaniel,” Reid called to the deputy at the back of the gymnasium. “I’ve had enough. We’ve been out of order, out of order, out of order.”

    McDaniel resisted, telling Reid that she did not have the authority to have her removed.

    The “yes I can/no you can’t” face-off continued even after the deputy approached and stood waiting behind McDaniel.

    Only when Reid called for a motion to adjourn did the standoff end.

    Reid said Friday that she was seeking a legal opinion from the District’s attorneys on if, and how, a Board member may be removed from a meeting. Roberts Rules of Order, under which the Board operates, requires a vote by the Board before one of its members may be ejected, but whether that is a two-thirds vote or a simple majority is in question. Neither option was used in Reid’s attempt to remove McDaniel.

    Emails to McDaniel seeking comment for this story were not returned at press time.

  • County Gets ‘Clean’ Audit

    WINNSBORO – Fairfield County received an “unmodified opinion” from Elliot Davis, LLC on its 2013-2014 fiscal audit, presented to Council at their Dec. 15 special called meeting.

    Representing the Columbia accounting firm, Brian D’Amico told Council that the opinion represented a “clean audit,” with no “material weaknesses” in this year’s audit, which D’Amico said was a tremendous improvement over the previous year’s audit where material weaknesses were uncovered in three areas, with two of those being repeat findings from the year prior. But the news wasn’t entirely good , and not only for Fairfield County. D’Amico said counties across the state are girding themselves for a numbers game being passed down from a State Legislature that has left the state retirement system as much as 40 percent underfunded.

    State Retirement System

    D’Amico reported to Council that the State Retirement System is only about 60-70 percent funded, leaving 30-40 percent hanging in the balance. That balance, at least for the time being, is being shifted from the state down to the counties.

    “It’s really not good news, but it is something we are going to have to tackle in fiscal year 2015,” D’Amico said. “What the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) is requiring us to do is that liability, that difference, that unfunded amount is going to be pushed down to all of the employers that make up the retirement system.”

    Fairfield County’s portion of the balance is approximately $14 million, D’Amico said, but noted that it is not something the County would be expected to pony up in real dollars next year.

    “It’s really a paper adjustment,” D’Amico. “It’s going to be reflected as a restatement. Your beginning balances are going to be restated to report this, but there’s no cash transaction other than the contributions you are withholding from your employees and your employer contributions you are making to the retirement system like you’re doing now.”

    The immediate impact, however, might show up in the County’s bond rating.

    “The biggest impact you might see is in your bond rating and how creditors are going to react to a S.C. employer who has a much larger liability than an employer from N.C.,” D’Amico said. “We don’t know how they are going to react to this number. Are they going to look at it as just a paper number realizing that over the next five years nothing really is going to change, or are they going to discount you more than say someone in another state? I think we’ll start to get those answers probably come this time next year when local governments like you are finishing up your financial statements.”

    “We won’t have to present or prepare some type of financial plan to offset the $14 million,” Milton Pope, County Administrator, clarified later. “What it is going to be is a paper or journal entry on our numbers, which could potentially make our numbers look worse and that could impact our ability when we need to issue bonds or look at our credit rating … We’re totally at the mercy of (the state retirement system) when it comes to what our actuarial liability is, and I think all local governments are probably going to receive a huge does of indigestion about this until we can work something out or hopefully get the state to accept that liability, and at this point they don’t want to accept that. … we have absolutely no choice in this. We are totally at the mercy of the state and what the state says.”

    Councilman David Brown (District 7) said there is nothing new about the state fobbing its responsibilities off onto local governments, noting that a plan is currently afoot in Columbia to turn over state road maintenance to county governments.

    “They’re wanting to give us back about 30 percent to 40 percent of the highways in the state of S.C. for the counties to maintain, but at the same time they’re cutting the money they’re supposed to give us to help run the counties,” Brown said. “We might be able to go out and buy a patching truck and keep our roads halfway up to date, but the first bridge that goes out and costs $20 million, that’s our budget.”

    Brown, who is retiring after 32 years on Council, offered a word of warning to his successor, Billy Smith, and to incoming Council members Dan Ruff (District 1) and Marion Robinson (District 5) to be prepared for a State Legislature that “has the idea they can run a government without taxes and they aren’t adding new taxes.”

    State Sen. Creighton Coleman (D-17) said he was not in favor of turning over state roads to the counties, adding that he did not think the plan would muster enough votes to pass.

    “It’s a pretty radical idea,” Coleman said. “To me, it’s a state problem and the state ought to find a solution.”

    Coleman was similarly optimistic about the funding of the state retirement system.

    “The state will figure something out,” he said.

  • Town Puts Attorney on the Payroll

    Jim Meggs

    BLYTHEWOOD – With a 3-2 vote Monday night, Town Council created and filled the position of full-time town attorney, hiring Jim Meggs for $40,000 a year. Councilmen Bob Mangone and Bob Massa voted against the hire.

    Meggs, who has served as the town’s attorney through his law firm, Callison, Tighe & Robinson, since 2011, said his firm was fully aware of the proposed transition from contracted attorney to full-time town employee. Meggs said he would provide his own computer, telephone and IT and would maintain his ability to practice law in S.C. at his own expense.

    “I think folks have found me to be pretty reasonably available,” Meggs said. “This would be an at-will arrangement, so if you get tired of me give me the nod and I would give you the same courtesy.”

    Mayor J. Michael Ross said he has discussed the transition with Meggs on “several occasions,” and that the move would save the town between $6,000 and $7,000 a year in legal expenses. But Mangone, who said he had no objections to Meggs specifically, said he disagreed with the process.

    “I think the process is wrong,” Mangone said. “We’re creating a position within the Town and to do that we need to follow a different procedure and not just say we’re going to be changing money from one budget to another. So my objection is not to Mr. Meggs, but to the process. I would like to see a more open process. I would like to see us post the job and see what other candidates may be available.”

    “(When) the town administrator left we had an open position,” Ross responded. “This position has never been open. This is just, really, a re-doing of the contract.”

    Councilman Tom Utroska said that the only real difference between hiring Meggs outright and keeping his current contract in place would be to whom the Town cuts the checks. Under the prior agreement, he noted, the town paid Meggs’ law firm, who then paid Meggs. Now, he said, the town will simply be paying Meggs directly.

    Councilman Bob Massa disagreed. “Since I have been critical of previous administrations that  hired employees similarly. despite liking Mr. Meggs and being pleased with his work, I could not approve his hiring.

  • Two Jailed in Ridgeway Shooting

    Leonard Mitchell
    Darius Heyward

    RIDGEWAY – A Winnsboro man was arrested last week and charged with attempted murder in the Dec. 14 shooting of 25-year-old Michael Samuel Thompson outside a Ridgeway nightclub.

    According to the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office, 23-year-old Leonard Earl Mitchell Jr. of 100 Castlewood Drive was arrested on Dec. 17 and charged with the shooting that sent Thompson to Palmetto Richland Hospital with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Mitchell was also charged with possession of a weapon during a violent crime and possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine. Distribution of marijuana charges were also levied against Mitchell from a previous investigation.

    Investigators also arrested Darius Heyward Jr., 18, of Shade Tree Lane in Blythewood, during their investigation. Heyward was charged on Dec. 17 with unlawful carrying of a handgun.

    Three Fairfield County Sheriff’s deputies were assisting with crowd control outside the C&B Bar and Grill at 7480 Highway 34 E. in Ridgeway as the club was closing down for the night. At approximately 3:13 a.m. on Dec. 14, deputies heard a single gunshot from the side parking lot, between the club and the Ridgeway Motel. A witness told deputies that the shooter was attempting to leave the scene in a Honda Accord. Deputies intercepted the vehicle and turned out its occupants: three men and a woman. Thompson was located a short distance from the vehicle, surrounded by members of his family. Deputies instructed them to keep pressure on the wound until the ambulance could arrive.

    Meanwhile, a crowd had formed around the Honda Accord and began making threats toward the suspects. The suspects were placed into a squad car and transported to the Sheriff’s Office while investigators processed the scene. Inside the Honda Accord, investigators located a Ruger 9MM handgun underneath the driver’s seat and found a spent shell casing inside the center console. Later that morning, investigators performed gunshot residue tests on the suspects.

    Mitchell was still being held at the Fairfield County Detention Center at press time. Heyward was released Dec. 19 on a $2,500 bond. The Sheriff’s Office said last week that it expects additional arrests to be made in connection with the shooting.